Believe in Me

Into the Dark

When the sleigh landed on the pavement of a road it was already dark. Normally North could go across the world to every city in one night, but with a little thought on it, Jack assumed that that was always on the same day each year. The reindeer weren’t prepared and the sleigh was fixed up within a few hours, not the yearlong preparations they were usually used to. Jack was a little disappointed to find that despite the autumn season in effect, it was barely cold here. He was the only one though, Tooth making a small, hopeful comment on the relieving warmth she hadn’t expected while helping Ilia climb over the side of the sled that was too high for her to easily jump down. Normally the girl would’ve tried to climb over on her own anyways, but with the anxiety that plagued her expression, it wasn’t unusual that she accepted Tooth’s help without much thought on it. Jack gave his best casual smile, walking over to her, kneeling down so he was at her height and looking her in the eyes, assuming she could see him despite the unfocused glint to them. “You know Grey better than all of us, he wouldn’t go to Pitch’s side like that, and he wouldn’t be taken down so easily either. I promise, he’s going to be fine. He’ll come back with us, fix all of this, and then we can take care of Pitch, right?” There was a few second delay. It was hard to keep his smile up seeing how hopelessly lost the small fox girl appeared to be, but when her eyes seemed to flicker a little with the life that once erupted behind the bright green tint, he felt a real smile draw on in relief. The corners of her mouth moved slightly upwards and she nodded. “I trust you.” They were the first words she had spoken in weeks, having a weak, shaky tone to them, the voice of someone strongly holding back tears, but relief as well. There was a strange happiness that dawned in the pit of his stomach behind the blue fabric of his hoodie. The way the words whispered out of her mouth, the first words she felt calm enough to say from the torrent of emotions she was probably going through were “I trust you.” Her voice was so small, so fragile, so lightly said but so heavily meant that it drew up the stir of hope that was in him but had fallen to the ground, fluttered the wings of wonder in the winter spirit. They could do this… he would make sure of it. It wasn’t just the world trusting on them now. They wouldn’t fail.

The roads were empty which further drew on the suspicion that Pitch was waiting for them. They were in a neighborhood it seemed, a few palms mingled in with the trees that cascaded shadows even darker than the darkness of night over the mostly matching homes that were placed evenly apart from each other. The lights were all out despite the sun having just gone down an hour or so ago, the cars unmoving in their designated driveways or street sides, no flickers of headlights anywhere in vision. It was almost eerie but Jack made complete sure to keep the tiny hope Ilia had involuntarily given him high… it was the best thing they had to fight through Pitch to get to Grey.

North had informed them right before they were about to land that the plan was to release Grey (in a weak hope that he wasn’t doing this on his own accord) and leave, no stops, hopefully no fighting if they could manage it, and no leaving each other. They would split up in two groups, though those groups were undecided currently, and go in together. It felt almost like those strange movies Jack had watched over Jamie’s shoulder when he used to visit the kid more often, the super-secret missions that he always thought were cool in a way. Now though he understood the stress that the movie characters seemed to have… it was nerving at the least. Pitch was powerful at this point, much further than he had been when they defeated him before, and for now he had made sure they felt so deprived of hope that they wouldn’t be able to take down their fear. It was dangerous… but he refused to lose his confidence, though that confidence was most likely just a fake reassurance in his head. It would be fine… but would it?

North cleared his throat once everyone was out of the sleigh, grabbing the attention from Jack’s mindless thoughts to return to the father-like figure. Jayna and Bunny were standing next to him, though the winter spirit had hardly noticed with how dark it seemed to be. The moon wasn’t illuminating the streets like it should and everything was nearly pitch black. Everyone circled around, Tooth hovering at Jack’s one side, Ilia at his other, the team of spirits making a crescent form to hear whatever speech they imagined North would give, though when he opened his mouth to speak, only two words came out. “Stay safe.” Jack felt his turquoise eyes wander around to each face, their expressions all around the general same. North turned to the cover of the manhole, digging his bulky fingers underneath and pulling up with all of his strength, and after a few seconds there was a loud clanging noise as the thick metal plate clashed to the street carelessly. The hole down was a dark one but Bunny was definatally right; this was no normal gutter. A very faint light came from the ground below and though it was about a ten foot drop down, it seemed much more like a pathway than a hole for storing rainwater. “Now, two groups, that way we will find him faster,” the heavy Russian accented voice said, almost cheerily so though it had a twist of insecurity as expected. Even now North was trying to cheer the small crowd of gloomy faces, but there was no guarantee that Grey could fix everything even if he got out of whatever situation was holding him back. There was a chance he didn’t even want to leave, that he would flick his wrist and they would all fall lifeless to the ground. No one spoke up though, partially for the sake of the already nearly hopeless tension in the air, and mostly for the small girl at Jack’s side. Even the mention of Grey sent her heart into a pit of sadness, they wouldn’t push her further into that pit. After a few seconds, Jayna muttered, “I’d like to go with Bunn…”